L: Middleton, Pine, Rolf, Evans, Naeide, Robert, Marcello, Paulina, Alex, Ehlend, Diana taking photo. M: Nate Evans, Me, Paulina, Peter Ehlend. R: Naeide's cake.

DECEMBER 25, 2008 THURSDAY CHRISTMAS DAY

This morning we were up early to get ready for our Christmas breakfast. I ran down to the church first of all and borrowed a couple of frying pans, a grater and a pitcher while Diana was making brownies; everyone loves her brownies. When I got back, I made Birchermuesli, a genuine Swiss breakfast food, made with oats, nuts, yogurt, raisins, any fruit you like (cut up) fresh or otherwise and milk. You don’t cook it, but let it soak until the oats are tender. Add enough milk so it’s like a pudding (not real thick). Diana cooked potatoes and I grated them for hash browns and fried bacon to put in them. Diana put out nuts, cookies, oranges, tangerines and apples. Diana set the table so it looked really nice, put out orange juice, orange drink and we were all set. Elders Ehlend and Evans came with the bread and we started cooking the hash browns and French toast. When we were done with the French toast, we used the rest of the eggs for scrambled eggs. The other guests arrived and we served them until they yelled uncle. The only one who didn’t show up was Suki, but Naeide’s son, Marcello, came with Naeide so that made eleven total in our tiny apartment. It was cozy, but fun. Diana had presents for them all after the breakfast was over which none of them expected. Diana is just so thoughtful, she wants to make it nice for everyone. Naeide baked a cake and brought it. The picture will be posted on our blog. Alex, the person from Ethiopia, had a little trouble finding our address, but he finally made. He brought us a box of chocolates and kept saying how happy he was to be able to celebrate Christmas with someone because his family is back home and he’s here alone. Rolf’s parents are dead; he has a brother and sister, but isn’t on speaking terms with them. Paulina is here from Mexico, has an uncle here who doesn’t like the Church, so she rode here with the missionaries. The party got over about 1:00 when most of them went home. Paulina, Elders Ehlend and Evans and Diana and I played “Oh Heaven” for a couple of more hours and then they left. We had a great time with all of them. After they left, we took gifts to all of our neighbors in our building which totaled twelve. Out of all of them, only one was home. For those that weren’t home, we hung their gift on their door knob or put it in their mailbox at the bottom of the stairs. We gave each two of the hot mitts, one filled with chocolate, nuts etc. and the other with a church DVD or CD plus a pass-along card for a BM.

We had set up a time to call our kids at home (8:00 p.m.), but somehow we couldn’t get through. It was very frustrating and we tried for over an hour. Maybe we just don’t know how to do it although we called the missionaries and they went through it with us again step by step. No dice. Today we had Elder Pine put SKYPE on our computer to be able to communicate by voice and web-camera, but our children don’t have it set up on their computers yet. So, for now, email will have to do. Elder Pine left his camera here so we expect that he’ll come back for it eventually. Christmas is over for one more year although the celebrating will go on a little longer. Actually the celebration of Christ’s birth and life should go on continually without ceasing. But we have one more dinner appointment on Saturday night where we bring a gift for an exchange.

Last night Diana and I watched Mr. Krueger’s Christmas and it was nice to get a little quiet time to think about the real meaning of Christmas.